Officials needed invites

Sitting at Rocky Mountain Power’s presentation last week, there was something missing at the meeting.

Representatives from the Rock Springs municipal government were in attendance, as were representatives from Sweetwater County and state offices. A few legislators were present as well, with Rep. John Freeman, D-Green River; Rep. Clark Stith, R-Rock Springs; and Sen. Tom James, R-Rock Springs, showing up.

What surprised me was the lack of representation from Green River. No one from the Green River municipal government or chamber of commerce was present at the meeting. This meeting would turn out to be newsworthy because RMP announced the results of an internal study suggesting the early retirement of four units at the Jim Bridger Power Plant and the Noughton Plant near Kemmerer would result in savings to its customers.

When asked if city representatives knew of the meeting, Communications Administrator Amanda Cavaz said city officials were not invited or were aware of the meeting. County representatives I spoke to regarding notice of the meeting said they weren’t aware until seeing a flier about the meeting days before it was scheduled and contacting RMP to get access. These statements check out with my personal experience too.

I wasn’t aware RMP planned to host the meeting about its study until about two hours before it was scheduled to take place, when a friend of mine quizzed me about what the subject was during lunch last week. Sensing there was something big about this presentation, I decided it was in our readers’ best interest for me to try crashing the meeting uninvited. To the RMP media team’s credit, they were very gracious working with me when I arrived with no advance notice.

However, the problem is Green River representatives needed to be at that meeting. While Green River’s employment is mostly supported through the trona mines, there are people in Green River employed at the plant and nearby coal mines. A larger issue with this study is how its recommendation will impact the county’s economy, which Green River has a stake in. RMP should have done more to publicize the meeting to officials, especially those in Green River and within the county. There’s no reason elected officials from the county should have learned about such an important announcement through a simple flier. They, as well as Green River’s representatives, should have been made aware of the meeting well in advance. Hopefully, RMP will be more forthcoming about future meetings regarding the Jim Bridger plant as the company works on its plan to retire two of its four units.